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A History of the British Secret Service [The Standard Work - Revised and Completely Up-Dated]
Book by Deacon, Richard
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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About the author
Richard Deacon
95 books7 followersGeorge Donald King McCormick (11 December 1911 – 2 January 1998) was a British journalist and popular historian, who also wrote under the pseudonym Richard Deacon.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2022
I'm only partway into this book and I am finding it rather plodding and unsatisfying.
Essentially it boils down to a series of unconnected antidotes that offers little insight to the thinking of the people involved and absolutely nothing on the situation behind these events.
The chapter on Tudor cryptography, for instance, consists almost entirely of broad statements about, say, Dee's use of angelic visions as a cover for coded messages. But none of this is covered in any sort of detail, and the only example of it is when it is being discussed a century later. Did anything Dee wrote have any impact on contemporary events? Did other countries use similar techniques or others?
Much of the chapter involves, on and off, the lead up to the Spanish Armada. But the only detail offered is the planting of fake astrological readings suggesting the weather would be bad during the estimated invasion time. The actual events of the invasion are not mentioned once, that occurs between chapters, any detail of actual intelligence gathered by cryptography or otherwise is completely missing.
And while this chapter is ostensibly about Walshingham's cryptography, it fails to cover its greatest feat in breaking the code used during the Babbington plot. Instead, the very last paragraph of the chapter speaks of Parry, saying nothing of what occurred, and then concludes the chapter by saying he was executed, hanging in the air utterly unsupported by the surrounding text.
I get the feeling that while this book was being prepared, Deacon wrote a series of index cards with random facts on them, sorted them by date, and then threw out cards until he reached his desired book length.
Essentially it boils down to a series of unconnected antidotes that offers little insight to the thinking of the people involved and absolutely nothing on the situation behind these events.
The chapter on Tudor cryptography, for instance, consists almost entirely of broad statements about, say, Dee's use of angelic visions as a cover for coded messages. But none of this is covered in any sort of detail, and the only example of it is when it is being discussed a century later. Did anything Dee wrote have any impact on contemporary events? Did other countries use similar techniques or others?
Much of the chapter involves, on and off, the lead up to the Spanish Armada. But the only detail offered is the planting of fake astrological readings suggesting the weather would be bad during the estimated invasion time. The actual events of the invasion are not mentioned once, that occurs between chapters, any detail of actual intelligence gathered by cryptography or otherwise is completely missing.
And while this chapter is ostensibly about Walshingham's cryptography, it fails to cover its greatest feat in breaking the code used during the Babbington plot. Instead, the very last paragraph of the chapter speaks of Parry, saying nothing of what occurred, and then concludes the chapter by saying he was executed, hanging in the air utterly unsupported by the surrounding text.
I get the feeling that while this book was being prepared, Deacon wrote a series of index cards with random facts on them, sorted them by date, and then threw out cards until he reached his desired book length.
August 27, 2017
Nonfiction
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May 1, 2017Edition: 1st Edition.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews